THE Punjab chief minister laid the foundation of the underpass of People’s Colony on GT Road in April 2003 but it has not been completed so far despite a further extension of three months to the contractor and highway department and despite public concern over the slow pace of construction.

The residents of the colony and business community protested against the government for not accelerating the construction work during the last two months. On public complaints district coordination officer Manzer Hayat visited the site with senior officers of the highway department and reviewed the work of the underpass in November last.

He was told by the contractor that work was stopped when the Railways put up various objections to the construction of the underpass. Later almost all its objections were removed and the construction work was resumed.

On the other hand, experts expressed concern over the slow construction and feared that it would not be completed within the next calendar year if work was not expedited by deploying more technical and skilled personnel.

The residents of the colony were facing great inconvenience in passing through the dug-up area. People of various professions have to come in the city daily and they have to travel as many as four kilometers extra for reaching their work place.

The citizens threatened to re-start their protest campaign against the district administration and highway department if the construction of the underpass was not completed before the deadline.

KAREN STATE (Myanmar): Even as fighting raged all around them, Pi Lu never thought she would have to uproot her eight children and flee their small village in eastern Myanmar.

She stayed even after her husband was killed in 2003, when he stepped on a landmine that had been planted in one of their rice paddies.

But over the last year, an offensive by Myanmar's military government to clear out villages in Pi Lu's ethnic Karen homeland escalated to a point where she could bear it no more.

Seven people in her village were killed in the shelling, and their animal herds were slowly decimated by landmines that littered the grazing areas around her village, she said.

“When the children went to sleep by artillery instead of lullabies, it was time to leave,” she said.

So like thousands of others in Myanmar's impoverished and battle-scarred Karen state, Pi Lu fled with her family, trekking through the jungle for weeks until they found refuge in a camp hidden in the mountains near the Thai border.

Two of her children are sick with malaria in the camp's dirt-floored clinic, which has no properly trained medical personnel and little equipment other than bandages and antiseptic.

Most of the patients are suffering from malaria, chronic diarrhoea or landmine injuries in a conflict largely forgotten by the rest of the world.

“Along the road, they have no health care so they got many sickness. And so when they arrive here at the same time at our hospital, every bed is full,” said a camp medic who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of his safety.

The camp, which didn't exist a year ago, now shelters some 2,500 people.

Like Pi Lu, most journeyed by foot for weeks or even months before finding the relative safety of the camp's bamboo huts along a thin stream.

Human Rights Watch estimates that 27,000 Karen have fled since the offensive began nearly one year ago, joining an estimated 100,000 already hiding near the Thai border.

The brutality of Myanmar's offensive against the rebel Karen National Union was one of the main concerns raised in the US-backed resolution at the UN Security Council, which was vetoed last Friday by China and Russia.

The Karen are just one of many ethnic groups targeted in the largest attempt to pacify minorities, many of whom have long struggled for self-determination in this country, formerly known as Burma.

The Karen's 57-year struggle for autonomy makes theirs one of the longest-running insurgencies in the world.

“Now the Burmese government has planted landmines on the farms on the routes back to the village, so these people cannot return safely back to their home or farm,” said Sunai Phasuk, a Human Rights Watch representative in Thailand.

“They are pushing further and further away into the jungle, and some of them have reported being hunted like animals after they ran away,” Sunai said.

And they continue to run.

Myanmar's ruling junta has pushed many villagers from their homes to create a security cordon around their new administrative capital Naypyidaw, where the government began operating nearly one year ago, according to rights groups.

But those who are relocated say the rape of women and forced labour for both sexes is common.

“They forced villagers to clear landmines and to rebuild roads on frontline areas,” one Karen aid worker at the camp said.

Government workers on bulldozers also use Karen as human shields against landmines, making villagers walk in front of the bulldozers to clear a path through the jungle, he said.

“The conflicts and military offensives in ethnic areas, in Karen State, Karenni State, Shan State further north, we can confidently call it crimes against humanity already,” Sunai said.

Those who have made it to the camp do not know where they will go next but say they cannot stay here.

Myanmar has signed deals with China and Thailand to build hydro-electric dams along this border, and some time soon this camp will be submerged deep beneath the nearby Salween River.

In the meantime, people living in this camp struggle along with little help and little concern from the outside world.

One 25-year-old man said he lost his foot when he stepped on a landmine. It was left untreated for a year, with the bone protruding, until a medic cut it off with a saw.

Once the wound healed, he made his own prosthetic leg out of bamboo so he could walk.—AFP

DRUMS rolled at the Jehangir Kothari Parade, fireworks lit the sky and food flowed freely at the food street; Karachi celebrated. Or so it seems. 12 days of extravaganza organised by the Karachi City District Government concluded last evening with a grand sound and light display accompanied by whirling dervishes and many accolades. Hamara Karachi had an ambitious agenda. There was theatre, boat rides, art displays and many a musical show – even opera – included in the goings on during the fest. With the KMC building’s platinum jubilee as the main theme, most gala events took place in this majestic edifice.

Planned at a cost of Rs60 million, the purpose was to celebrate Karachi’s heritage and to ‘bring back a feeling of pride for our city of lights,’ as one proud Karachiite stated. And while the Nazim was reiterating at every conceivable opportunity that the fest was a huge success, just a few from amongst the 15 million were even aware that there was a celebration on.

Karachi’s populace includes poor labourers, poverty stricken fishermen and middle income professionals on one side and aristocrats, landed and other gentry and the nouveau riches/magnates on the other. Intended to be ‘inclusive’ of the diverse cultures and income strata, it is debatable if all these played any part in Hamara Karachi and whether the kutchi abadi settlers and residents of Malir, Gadap, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Nazimabad, Baldia and Korangi etc., derived any enjoyment from it. After all Karachi is theirs too! But being far removed from the hub of the activity (mostly centred in Saddar Town) the majority could neither be bothered nor can deal with the logistics of frequenting out of the way areas. With Karachi’s infrastructure in shambles there is nothing to celebrate when there is a daily battle of logistics raging for many who are anyway struggling to survive on meagre resources.

As for the plethora of activities planned for Hamara Karachi, many were officially planned functions. And with the officials in full attendance there was mutual back patting and self praise lavished all around with a declaration of how successful the whole fiesta had been. Some regular activities like the Black Fish theatre performance which had been going on for four years and art exhibitions were added on to the Hamara Karachi bandwagon to give it a more glamorous flavour. In fact, most of these events which could have garnered more participation were neither publicised nor planned properly and some were just cancelled midway because of poor attendance.

The events planned for the commoners like the carnival at Sea View, Clifton, the street theatre, the band and concerts, were attended by the area residents in large numbers, and as such may be called successful. The most commendable event perhaps was the play at the Khaliqdina Hall – a venue that holds a mystique of Karachi’s history, but is hardly ever frequented by the masses. As for the food streets, though these presented the golden opportunity of devouring Karachi’s delectable cuisine while sitting in the middle of the city’s thoroughfares, it was a logistical nightmare. After a hard day’s work, battling yet again with massive traffic jams just to eat food is not a viable option for most of us. In fact, lack of planning (not to mention the motives) was what brought forth pithy criticism from a number of people regarding Hamara Karachi.

Mr Rajab Ali Memon commented; “The state of governance in Karachi is already alarming with double-digit rise in car and mobile thefts, as well as in inflation…Under the circumstances, political gimmicks can only act as salt on the wounds of the poor populace because they face serious threats of rising poverty and deteriorating law and order…” Habib Fida Ali wrote; “The KMC was a symbol of civic identity for the city of Karachi. Under the mayorship of stalwarts like Jamshed Nuserwanjee and Hatim Alavi, the streets of Karachi were washed every night. It was the cleanest city of the subcontinent…now, (we have) roads and streets full of potholes, heaps of garbage and rubble, overflowing gutters, ugly billboards. And with a few drops of rain the whole city comes to a grinding halt: is this the city of 21st century?”

Before celebrating 50 or so events over a period of 12 days under a banner implying the sentiments of all its citizens, some thought should have been given to the conditions which the majority live in.

If the idea is to provide affordable entertainment to the masses than the entire civic structure should be changed first before anything of a celebratory nature is undertaken. Otherwise it is a mockery of the people’s issues, which is what the critics are ranting at. It is visible even to the blind that this (like many other gifts and gimmicks) is a campaign move, like all ad-hoc plans made for Karachi – be they for its development or celebration.

The upside of the festival was that since the city government has enough clout to mobilise support from other organisations and get infrastructure support at a moment’s notice, the residents along the activity areas saw potholes hurriedly being filled, roads being carpeted in patches where there were craters existing since the rains and street lights fixed among other things. The residents will definitely be thankful for these little mercies. How the rest of the 15 million will continue to feel about Karachi, is debatable.